The Turnbull government has survived a no-confidence motion calling on the prime minister to trigger an immediate election.
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Labor's Senate leader Penny Wong moved the motion, saying it's clear with at least 13 senior ministers abandoning the government it no longer has control.
But the government prevailed 35-31 with four conservative independents, South Australia's Tim Storer, Derryn Hinch and One Nation voting against.
Centre Alliance's two senators didn't vote, preferring to wait and see where the chaos engulfing Canberra leads before supporting such a move.
Senator Wong says the government's upper house leader can't even answer how many ministers are left and the Nationals leader can't say in whom he has confidence as prime minister.
"Australia does not have a functioning government. We have a rabble, a rabble of self-interested people masquerading as the representatives of Australia," she told the chamber on Thursday.
Senator Wong said this week's Liberal insurrection, which has left Malcolm Turnbull hanging onto the leadership by a thread, had been an extraordinary spectacle.
"It has been an extraordinary spectacle of disunity, of division, of personal hatred, of enmity and ill discipline.
"The only people who matter to the Liberal Party are themselves."
Simon Birmingham, who was elevated to the government's Senate leader after Mathias Cormann resigned on Thursday morning, defended the coalition's achievements.
"This Liberal-National government has delivered good policies and strong outcomes in spades," Senator Birmingham said.
Greens leader Richard Di Natale went ballistic at the government, calling the crisis a national embarrassment.
"You should hang your heads in shame," he shouted across the chamber.
Pauline Hanson used her speech to target division within previous Labor governments.
"This is political pointscoring at its utmost," the One Nation leader said.
Australian Associated Press
